


Soul

by RockyPond



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, I liked the emotion but not the permanency, I was a mess after Endgame, Multi, Post-Canon Fix-It, You Have Been Warned, like major spoilers, so I fixed it but kept the emotion, spoilers for avengers endgame, you’re welcome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-31 05:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18584515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockyPond/pseuds/RockyPond
Summary: MAJOR AVENGERS ENDGAME SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.He was hugging Mr Stark wasn’t he? He was rambling, words a mile a minute and then he was hugging Mr. Stark. So why wasn’t he in his arms anymore?A post-Canon fix-it because I refuse for it to end like that.





	Soul

**Author's Note:**

> MAJOR SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS ENDGAME. LIKE THE BIGGEST SPOILERS. CAN’T STRESS THAT ENOUGH.  
> Anyways, this movie made me sad and I sobbed so hard in the cinema I felt so bad for those around me because damn my gasping must have been annoying. I couldn’t help it though, Tony’s my favourite character not just in the MCU but also in everything ever. If he had to die I’m glad it was like this, the biggest sacrifice, but I stand by the fact he didn’t HAVE to die.  
> Also, I live for Peter Parker & Tony Stark interactions, aka Iron Dad and Spider Son and I just realised while writing this we will literally never get to see them interact again and now I want to cry again. So let’s ignore the canon and go with this.  
> Basically, to not confuse people, this acts of the headcanon that those who were sacrificed for the Soul Stone, or died wielding it (not Thanos since he didn’t die wielding it) will end up in the Soul Stone after death. So Tony, Gamora, Natasha and an OC because I couldn’t help myself, are in there and they escape. This is such long notes and I apologise, let’s get to the story shall we?

He was hugging Mr Stark wasn’t he? He was rambling, words a mile a minute and then he was hugging Mr. Stark. So why wasn’t he in his arms anymore?  
Peter fights mostly on autopilot, too confused by all the weirdness and the fact that apparently he’s been dead for five years and how does that make any sense? But he pushes past that, ignores it because Mr. Stark was here and needed help and he was going to help him.  
All the aliens-because they were definitely aliens, no matter how much they looked like something out of a horror movie- suddenly started turning to dust. Was this what it had looked like when it was half the universe? Peter had been too focused on the sick feeling flooding his veins last time to really pay attention to the others, which he does feel guilty about even now.  
But the aliens are turning to dust and they’ve won, so where is Mr. Stark? He wants a repeat of the hug from earlier. Where is his hug?  
He looks around and spots him, lying down in his armour, his faceplate removed and his skin looking weird. Burnt. Peter swallows down the feeling that something horribly, horrifically wrong has happened.  
He runs over to Mr. Stark and he doesn’t even look at Peter. He looks dead, but Peter can see the slight rise and fall of his chest. It doesn’t look good, looks painful and Mr. Stark’s eyes are glazed over.  
He falls to his knees in front of him, begging him to look at him with his words, trying to wake him from the stupor he is in. “Mr. Stark, we won. We won, Mr. Stark.”  
He doesn’t look at him.   
Hands lightly guide him away and he realises they are Pepper’s hands, clad in an Iron Man suit. Iron Woman? Peter’s mind likes to wander when he was worried and Peter was scared shitless at the moment. Because Mr. Stark was looking at Pepper but he looked ready to give up, only holding on by a thread to ensure his loved ones were safe.  
“You can rest now.” Pepper tells him, and Peter wants to scream at her. Mr. Stark can’t rest because it means he’ll go away and Peter refuses to live in a world without Tony Stark.   
But Tony’s breathing stops and Peter is sobbing, when did that happen, and he can hear crying all around him as heroes mourned. As they should. Because the world would never be the same, not without Iron Man and more importantly not without Tony Stark.

It’s the funeral. Peter’s suit itches and his tie is too tight. He doesn’t want to be here.  
He wants to be in Mr. Stark’s lab, or out in the field or doing literally anything else with Mr. Stark rather than attending his funeral.   
He says nothing during the service, doesn’t really notice much, just stares at the back of the head of Mr. Stark’s daughter. And isn’t that messed up? Mr. Stark had a daughter and Peter would never see how fantastic he would treat her. Peter always knew Mr. Stark would be a good father, and from what he heard he was right. Morgan loved her dad ‘3000 times’.  
Tears are not coming, despite the fact he wants them to. Because this is funeral, and you are meant to cry at funerals. He cried at his parents’ funeral, in the way only a small child can, not really understanding what happened but knowing everyone else is sad so you should be sad. He sobbed at Uncle Ben’s funeral, guilt pressing down on his shoulders until he could barely breathe. And yet, he’s silent at Mr. Stark’s. That doesn’t seem fair.  
Then again, none of this is fair.  
He sees the memorial piece, stating ‘Proof that Tony Stark has a heart’. It makes no sense to him but Pepper looks about ready to burst into tears at the sight of it, even though she definitely planned it, so it must have been important.   
After the funeral ends Peter is introduced to another boy, around his age. Apparently the kid helped out Tony and Tony left him. It seems Tony had a habit of leaving people.  
Which isn’t fair because he’s dead, he didn’t have a choice.  
And apparently he didn’t really leave Harley, sent him money and the occasional phone call. Especially after the Snap, when he sent frequent money to the recently orphaned Harley, to pay for his housing. He also attended Harley’s mother’s funeral, to support the boy and his sister.  
Peter wished Mr. Stark could have been the one introducing them, not the two finding each other as the only teenagers at the private funeral of a hero.  
Peter just wished for Mr. Stark.

Months had passed, nearly a year. Peter was again visiting Pepper and Morgan, as he often did when he felt the empty pit in his stomach. Morgan had only recently stopped asking when her daddy would be home, because she was a child and children didn’t really understand that dead meant gone, forever.  
Peter did not have that luxury.  
Still, Peter almost missed Morgan’s questioning, because he was able to pretend for a moment that Mr. Stark was not dead, just travelling, that is until he had to break the poor girl’s heart again for the dozenth time by reminding her that her dad was not coming back.  
He was playing outside with Morgan, while Pepper watched with that sad smile that was almost always on her face, pretending that Morgan was Iron Woman and he was Spider-Man and they were defending the world from evil toys. He wasn’t really Spider-Man anymore, he still helped people of course but it just never felt the same now. But he could pretend for Morgan, for Queens, for the rest of the damn world that his life didn’t end the minute Mr. Stark’s life did. Because that’s not fair on either of them.  
A lot of the other avengers are visiting, as they often did when it was a monthly anniversary of that battle.   
Which meant they were all there when an orange glow flooded the clearing and a hole in the air opened up. Out tumbled four people.  
One was a woman with green skin, which if he had seen months back he probably would have fainted at the sight of but now was accustomed to that kind of thing. Another was just a teenage girl, definitely no older than about 18, nothing special about her.  
The third looked familiar, slightly different hair than the last time Peter had seen her but still distinctly Black Widow.  
And then, there was Mr. Stark. He looked the same as the last time Peter had seen him, same burns on the side of his body although they looked distinctly less painful and he looked distinctly less dead.  
Morgan runs first, with none of the shock of the others because she still hadn’t truly accepted that her father was dead. “Daddy,” she cheers as she races forward, Mr. Stark immediately lifting her into his arms as he peppered her cheeks with kisses, obviously excited to see her.   
Pepper runs forward next, touching Mr. Stark’s arm, his face, his neck, anywhere she can get her hands on as if to prove he isn’t a hallucination. She’s crying, so is Mr. Stark and Morgan looks so right in her parents’ arms Peter almost feels like crying. This is what he never got to see and now, by some miracle, he is able to.  
Peter stumbles forward, still confused because how the hell is Mr. Stark, he saw him die and attended his funeral. He saw his breathing stop and his eyes unfocus and never blink. Mr. Stark is blinking now, against the tears streaming uninhibited down his face.   
Peter has a distant memory, still fuzzy like always, of Mr. Stark crying while Peter’s body felt like it was turning to dust.   
Peter finally reached Mr. Stark and watches the man almost regretfully hand the small child to Pepper before pulling Peter into a long hug. He can feel the state of the teenage girl on his back but he doesn’t care because in this moment he is back in Mr. Stark’s arms for the first time in months and he finally feels whole again.


End file.
